Dazed

A Rick Turner would be my weapon of choice. No acoustic value, but looks the part, doesn’t have the fat uncomfortable body and they sound amazing. Second hand should be in your budget but might take a while for one to pop up. If you do go acoustic you’ll possibly go through the ring of string choices. From my experience don’t fall for the Phospher Bronze acoustic strings! Scratchy noisy things. Much preferred flats and tape wounds but that’s only my opinion.

Ok so I know little about how any particular amp generates its own sound or voice. Can anyone enlighten me? Following on from this, is it possible to change that voice? Yes I realise a different amp may be simpler but I’m interested in the how this works. Finally, if you have an amp with a single tone control, is it possible to change it to 3 (or more) comtrols - bass mid treble for example. Hopefully this makes sense to some of you 😁

And so is the sales advert https://rvrb.io/ritter-r8-singlecu-a8xtp0 https://reverb.com/item/14221504-ritter-r8-singlecut-acoustic-hollowbody-bass-piezo-first-ever-redwood-body

I haven’t been around here much lately....... protecting my wallet 😂 so first off Hello For the last couple of years I’ve had a thing for a small bodied headless bass. Compact, light-ish weight, portable, ideally 5 or even 6 string. I’ve always liked headless basses, liked the Hohner Jack I owned 25+ years ago. Often think of picking up a Steinberger type but as far as I know the 5’s have a narrowish string spacing which I can’t get along with and there isn’t a 6. There isn’t much out there really that ticks all those boxes. I did own a Streamline briefly and for whatever reason really didn’t enjoy it, more the tone than anything else if I recall. So, I visited here earlier in the week and had a mooch around, ended up in the For Sale area as usual(!) and I came across a posted link to something and ended up on the bass direct website. There I found this! http://bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Ash_Instruments_Six_Headless.html I’m intrigued! It doesn’t look particularly comfortable to play- no lower cutaway, so I guess a strap is always required and I don’t love the shape, colour and a few other things 😂 I’m curious if any of you have been in there lately and seen it or actually played this thing and had an opinion to share?

@jebroad did you get any further with the build? There was a guy Dmitry in Ukraine designing and making a headless system. The website is Mera Guitars http://meraguitars.com/eng/parts/mech/submarineb.html Individual units similar looking to something I think ABM produce but looked much nicer to me. Very helpful guy too.

I know right 😂 (joke!) no seriously, I’ve always admired good drummers, wish I’d have realised it at a young age and learned to play them properly. Anyway the reason for this post is because of a 4 part programme on Sky Arts - The Art Of Dumming. The 2nd one is on now but it’s probably on catch up. I caught the first one last night and I’d recommend watching it. Interviews and clips of them playing from a wide spectrum of drummers, and the histories of common patterns and grooves and how they developed.

Well I wasn’t expecting this much feedback, many thanks to all that have commented so far! My reasons for posting were to gauge if people had used the lessons, improved, and felt there was a worthwhile improvement from the financial outlay. I know from my own experience, good and bad, you only improve by putting the time and effort in but also focussing and not wasting your time widdling (guilty). I started off as a child, aged 8 or 9, playing guitar and having weekly lessons at school. The lessons definitely helped - good teacher. I gave it by senior school and a couple of years later picked up the bass and taught myself. I’d learned to read earlier on guitar to an ok level but over time stopped reading and learned everything by ear. I played with a large brass swing band for a year or so and realised my reading was pretty awful! Instead of practising reading I left the swing band, although my girlfriend at the time also sang in the same band and her leaving influenced my decision. Looking back I should have stayed with the band 😂 but that’s another story At 15/16 I started playing in bands, mainly original material with the very occasional cover gig. Of course at that age I was too cool to have lessons and carried in doing my own thing for 7 or 8 years, slowly getting further into a rut and not really improving my playing, knowledge, theory or reading. At some point in my twenties I had a few lessons from a quite well known bassist/ guitarist/drummer a very talented musician. The problem was I didn’t know what I wanted to get from the lessons and as we were friends, the lessons became more of a coffee and a chat. He did teach me about modes, which I vaguely remember and occasionally practice them. Life became busier as it does, music became less important and the bands I’d been playing in fell apart or imploded as we all moved onto other things. I stopped playing for a long time, ten years or so, bands and all the politics had left me with a bitter taste. For whatever reasons I kept all of my gear and eventually the urge to play returned. Anyone who has been through this will know the feeling of joy but also disappointment that your abilities have severely diminished! This brings me upto the last chapter of my playing, the now slightly rounder shaped, more disposable income, post mid life crisis, bedroom noodling, accidental bass collector (yes I do blame BC!) attempting to learn and actually understand what I’m doing. I haven’t really progressed with any theory or reading, though that is still a goal and I haven’t yet found enough courage or nerve to look into playing with other people or in public, but I haven’t complete ruled it out either. Through other tragic life events I’ve found myself with vast amounts of time to fill. A while ago I went back to what I enjoyed and set myself a few tasks of things to learn by ear. As much to keep playing as to help me through a massive depressive phase, which it really did. Sticking to a rough schedule of daily practice I did make a lot of improvement, surpassing my previous form in some areas which was encouraging. Again things got in the way and that all tailed off. So here I am again, staring at my collection of more money than talent, giving myself a bloody good serious talking to, to get rid of all those shiny things, but keep a couple and concentrate on the playing . If you’re still here reading this, I thank you, you’re very patient and I have signed up to SBL. I may even post updates to publicly shame myself into keeping at it.....

Another email form Scott’s bass has prompted this question. It is currently on offer and I’m just wondering if it’s worth shelling out for. i haven’t been playing much for the last couple of years due to life etc. I keep promising myself I’ll get back into it with a vengeance but that’s not really happened. Thoughts, opinions and experiences welcomed 🙂

Never seen those Zoots before. What a great collection!!

My drummer only drank tap water so no chance either way!